Figure 2. Expansion of Tregs in spleen following FV infection.

A) The absolute numbers and B) proportions of TCR Vβ subsets expressed by CD4⁺ Foxp3⁺ Tregs from the spleens of naïve mice (white bars) and FV-infected mice (2wpi) (black bars). Bars represent the mean and standard deviation from 5 mice. The calculated absolute numbers of C) Vβ5⁺ and D) Vβ5⁻ CD4⁺Foxp3⁺ Tregs in the spleens and E) Vβ5⁺ and F) Vβ5⁻ Tregs in the livers of naïve (white bars) and FV infected mice (black bars) at 0, 1, 2, 4 and 8 wpi. G) The kinetics of CD4⁺ Foxp3⁺ T cells expressing Vβ5 from the spleens (squares) and livers (circles) following LDV infection. Data are the mean and SEM of mice from 5 independent experiments. For Panel A, all Treg subsets have significant increases in absolute number (P < 0.05 by t test). For Panel B, only the increase in Vβ5⁺ Tregs was significant (P < 0.05 by t test). For Panel G, a significantly greater proportion of Vβ5⁺ Tregs was observed after FV-infection compared to day 0 for the spleen where indicated (*) (One-Way ANOVA with Dunnett’s multiple comparisons post-test).